IT Spending in 2005 Looks A Lot Like 2004, Forrester Says

Spending on information technology (IT) remains in a period of “tech digestion,” in which overall investment in IT by businesses and government grows at about the same rate of the overall economy, at about an anticipated 7% in 2005, according to Forrester Research analyst Andrew Bartels. Meanwhile, IT staffing costs among American enterprises are expected to increase 6% in 2005, the same amount as in 2004, after much lower rates in 2001-2003. And the financial services sector remains one of the biggest consumers of IT, coming in only behind professional services and government. These graphs show Forrester’s forecast for IT spending in the United States for this year, the think firm’s forecast for total U.S. IT staffing costs and its forecast for IT spending growth by industry in ’05.